Have you reached a point in your business when you’re fully booked and overwhelmed? Do you have zero time left for family? On this episode of the Five Star Business Podcast, join me on a live coaching call with Haley Littlepage where I’m sharing strategies to implement in your business to overcome the overwhelm and realign your priorities with your values.

What It’s Like to Work with a Business Coach

Brooke: From time to time, I will share my real-life coaching calls that I’ve had with my clients. Most of the topics that I coach on are relatable and you’ll be able to apply some of what we’re talking about to your own business. I also know that it can be really scary to invest in a coach or mentor. It’s always fun to get an inside look into how someone coaches. You can get an idea of what it would look like to be on a coaching call. This call is a preview of what it would look like to work with me.

I am a full-time business coach. I love what I do. I’m obsessed with marketing strategies and creating a business plan so that you know what to do in your business, day in and day out. If you are feeling stuck, or you thrive off of having accountability to get things done in your business to move the needle forward, then I would love to work with you!

There are a few different ways that you can coach with me. I offer one-time strategy calls, where we have a coaching session on Zoom for an hour. Another option I offer is a long-term coaching package. In a long-term coaching set up, we will dive into the nitty gritty of your business. Shoot me an email brooke@brookejefferson.com or send me a DM over on Instagram @brookejanaejefferson and together, we’ll find the right set up for you.

Who is Haley Littlepage?

Haley: I’m a work at home mama and wife. We have two young girls, one toddler and one baby. I own The Humble Help Desk. I’m a photography virtual assistant specializing in blogging, Pinterest and social media for photographers.

Brooke: You are definitely needed, especially in the photography industry. I’m blessed that you get to be a part of my team. I get to outsource the things that I don’t have time to do or don’t want to do. I’m thankful that I have your services.

Haley: I’m honored to be on your team. That’s my pleasure and it’s what I love to do.

Overbooked and Misaligned with Your Values

Brooke: Tell me a little bit where are you at right now in your business, the good and the struggles that you’re facing.

Haley: My business is in a booming season, which is good, but that’s also the struggle. Right now, I’m fully booked and overwhelmed. I’m working almost 24/7 to keep up. The original goal of my business was to be home and be present with my babies. I feel like I’ve lost that. So, I need to figure out where to go from here to realign my business with my values.

Brooke: Congratulations for getting to that growth stage in business, where you’re doing the things that you love to do and making the money that you’re hoping to make. However, when you do this, you find yourself with an overfull plate. You wonder how in the world you got here, trying to work in all of the cracks in your day and missing out on work life balance. Would you say that’s correct?

Haley: That’s it. You nailed it.

3 Solutions to Consider When You’re Fully Booked and Overwhelmed

Brooke: When you find yourself fully booked and overwhelmed by your business, and at some point, almost everyone does, it’s a bittersweet season. You’ve proven that your business plan or product or service is wanted and needed. At the same time, you start to feel the weight of that season. You wonder, “How am I going to be able to keep the clients that I have, but still show up in motherhood, marriage and life without feeling like I am putting everything else on the backburner?” I have been there and done that so many times.

Drop One Offer or Service

One solution that you could implement is to drop one of your offers and focus solely on two of them. Then, you’re doing less work. You’re really honing in on the services that you love to do. Then, you’re able to manage your tasks more easily.

Outsource the Tasks Someone Else Could Handle

Another solution you could implement is to bring on help and outsource in your business. While you’re a virtual assistant, for me, and for other photographers, or other business owners, you could potentially bring on help of your own and someone else could do some of the work that you’re doing. You could train them to do it the way that you do.

Raise Your Prices or Lock in a Limited Number of Clients

You can raise your prices or lock in a limited number of clients when you’re fully booked and overwhelmed. Lock in the clients that are paying the majority of your income, keep them and scale your business with just those clients. There are a lot of options you can consider. What are your initial thoughts?

Niching Down Further When You’re Overwhelmed by Your Business

Haley: Whenever you suggested the first solution, dropping one of my services, I had an immediate answer for that. My services are blogging, Pinterest and social media. If I could drop one, it would be social media.

Brooke: We love clarity. Pinterest and blogging services will be your main focus if you drop social media. Do you feel like you would be able to have a better system and be more productive when you’re only focusing on those two things? Also, let me ask you this, why do you want to drop social media? What are the cons when it comes to offering that service?

Haley: Out of all three of those services, social media requires the most daily attention. Although there’s a lot with social media that you can schedule ahead of time, things like daily engagement or Instagram stories require me to be present every day. I have to post reels live. They can’t be scheduled. Social media eats up a lot more time than blogging or Pinterest. Those allow me to have very strict deadlines and I know exactly what my timelines look like.

Blogging and Pinterest are also just the services I’m more passionate about. If I had to pick a favorite service, it’s blogging, hands down. That’s my favorite thing. Pinterest goes hand in hand with blogging. Offering only those two makes the most sense and they’re my favorite so, it’s an obvious solution.

Create a Plan to Make a Pivot in Your Business

Brooke: The first option is absolutely a solution and something that you can do today. I recommend moving forward and focusing on primarily offering only those two services. When you implement this into your business, what does this look like? How are you going to have a process for letting clients go, or for letting them know that you’re only offering these two types of services? What is a good plan for you to let go of your social media services?

Haley: First, send out a clarity email to all of my current clients telling them that I will be dropping social media and the new pivot will focus on blogging and Pinterest. I’ll offer a buffer time so that I’m not “leaving my clients hanging”, so to speak. Maybe one month or two months. Let my clients know that I’m still offering these services until a set deadline, so they have time to adjust or find a new social media manager. That way, I feel like it’s a comfortable transition for everybody and I can help my clients along with the process.

How to Transition Into Your New Pivot When You’re Fully Booked and Overwhelmed

Brooke: I love the clarity email; I think that’s great. A little bit of feedback that I have for you is to go one step further and make it an even smoother transition. At the same time, allow you to build income and replace that at the same time. I want to give you a couple of things that I would do if I was in your shoes.

Draft an Announcement Email to Your Clients and Create a Buffer Time

First of all, I would put together a clarity announcement email. You should definitely have a buffer/transition time. I would set that at 30 days. As a business owner and someone who has received one of these for a different service, 30 days was plenty of time to find a replacement.

Create a List of Referrals to Send Clients to For Services You No Longer Offer

The second thing that I would do to serve those clients that you’re no longer going to work with is put a feeler out there for referrals. Find three recommendations of social media managers that are currently taking clients and can match the level of service that you provided. I love doing that anytime that I can’t be the answer. Give two or three recommendations of where someone can go. Add all of that to your announcement email for your clients. Then, you’ve already gone above and beyond.

Create a Strategy to Replace Lost Income

A plan for promoting your pivot will help you to replace any lost income you experience from dropping other services. Start advertising for the income that you’re losing in order to replace it with blogging or Pinterest services. Promote your pivot and say that you have an onboarding date of August 1st. So, starting August 1st, when your 30 day buffer period is over, you are going to be able to onboard new clients. That’s going to allow you to let go of what is not serving you and eating too much of your time. It also allows you to replace it with what you are already wanting to do. So, thoughts on that?

Haley: I love the idea of adding a referral, doing that research for my clients and adding their contact information and supporting other virtual assistants out there. I love the 30 day timeline because seeing a closer finish line for myself gives me a little bit of relief already. Then, having a start date to promote my two focus services is so helpful to replace that lost income. This action plan will help me get out of being fully booked and overwhelmed.

Seeing a Light at the End of Tunnel for a Fully Booked and Overwhelmed Season

Brooke: I’m excited for you. Now you’re going to be able to let go of what is holding you up, which is spreading yourself too thin and over filling your plate. Now you can go all in. The two services you love will be your primary focus. It’s going to make your marketing so much easier, because you’re talking about the same things over and over.

It’s going to help you with workflows and productivity because I know you do theme days. So, you typically, designate your Mondays for one thing, or Tuesdays for another. It will be so much easier now that you only have two services to focus on. This is going to free up at least a day or two, where you don’t even have to open your computer if you don’t want to. That’s what I hope you’re going to get with this plan while also meeting your financial goals. Tell me tell me how you feel. When are you going to implement this into your business?

Set a Deadline for Your Business Pivot

Haley: I’m really excited about this. I’m ready for a breath of fresh air and to really focus on what I love and narrowing in on that. I’ll start this by the first of July, which is in three days. My goal before July 1, is to craft this action plan, draft an email, gather up the referral information to send out and send that email before July 1st. That’s my goal.

Brooke: I’m so excited for you. Even though I am a client of yours, it’s exciting to see this from my business coach lens. It inspires people to make decisions like this in their own business. Sometimes seeing it is the best way to get that inspiration and that kick in the pants that we need for our own business. We will have to touch base in about 60 days and see where your business is. We’ll look at what’s changed and what your home life looks like. That way we can do a little check in episode to see how it went for you.

Haley: I would love that Brooke, I so appreciate your advice. It’s really cool for me as someone who works for you to be on your business coaching side for once. I completely see why people invest in you, you’re fully worth it. The plan we’ve got here makes me thrilled. I can’t wait for you to see where it goes.

Connect with Haley

Brooke: How can someone get a hold of you if they are interested in your blogging and Pinterest services? How can they find more information about the services that you offer?

Haley: You can find me on Instagram @thehumblehelpdesk. You can also send me an email at thehumblehelpdesk@gmail.com and I will send you over a new investment guide that I’ll be working on with my new blogging and Pinterest services. You can also find my offers on my website at www.thehumblehelpdesk.com.

Brooke: Thank you so much for allowing us to air this on the show. There is no telling how many people were inspired today to make their own decision to really niche down to the thing that they love to do. I hope they found solutions to use when they’re fully booked and overwhelmed by their business.

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:

Work Life Balance: Is it even possible?

What the Proverbs 31 Woman Can Teach Us About Marriage, Motherhood and Entrepreneurship

Biblical Goal Setting for Your Business